This week’s Thursday Night Football victory for the Chicago Bears over the New England Patriots will go down as one of the team’s signature victories of 2026.
The reigning AFC champions came into Soldier Field on a short week and with a long list of injuries. The Bears, though, were also no strangers to the injury report, missing key contributors such as RB Kyle Monangai, DE Dayo Odeyingbo, as well as LB Jack Sanborn and original starting LT Braxton Jones, among others (S Coby Bryant has yet to play
this season). Plus, DE Montez Sweat was out for the final game of his two-game suspension.
And then there’s QB Caleb Williams, who returned on Sunday from a hamstring injury that he can still be seen favoring at times if you look close enough. But that didn’t stop the team from winning the game from bell to bell, and although things tightened up at the end, the Bears showed once again that they know how to play with a lead. That’s a diversion from last year, when the team’s calling card was coming from behind to win games.
Let’s get to this week’s game balls.
Offense Game Ball: WR Luther Burden III
This award could go to Caleb Williams pretty much every week, and this week was no exception. Williams was terrific once again, but we’re going to look to WR Luther Burden III who had his best game of the young season.
Burden was the team’s key target in the first half, and he scored the Bears’ second touchdown of the game when he received a short pass from Williams that he broke into a 24 yard touchdown reception. That touchdown made the score 20-7 with 14 seconds left in the first half.
In addition to his touchdown in the second quarter, Burden also had a 58 yard reception late in the first quarter that was nearly a touchdown.
Burden ended the night with four catches for 130 yards, one touchdown, and one run for seven yards.
Defense Game Ball: LB D’Marco Jackson
Jackson continues to be a heck of a find for the Bears, who signed the former New Orleans Saint last year and saw him work his way up the depth chart due to injuries, elevating his game in the process. He’s become one of the team’s most dependable players on defense.
Jackson picked off QB Drake Maye in the end zone, stopping a potential Patriots scoring drive that could have ended up swinging the game. With a touchdown and successful extra point on that drive, the Patriots would have gone up 14-13. It was Maye’s first interception in three weeks.
Jackson is signed with the Bears through the 2027 season, but the team might want to start thinking about an extension.
Special Teams Game Ball: K Cairo Santos
I went back and forth on this one a little bit. Santos made a clutch 58 yard field goal (his career long) to ice the game toward the end of the fourth quarter, but the reason the team badly needed those points was because Santos had missed a 53 yarder just a few minutes earlier in the fourth quarter.
In the end, I felt Santos was deserving due to the fact that his prior miss would have caused a lesser player to shrink under the pressure.
But Santos wanted the pressure. In fact, he seemed to relish it. Santos told Bears special teams coach Richard Hightower he was ready to kick the field goal, and head coach Ben Johnson trusted his guy.
Right down the middle. Never a doubt.
Who would have received your game balls? Let us know in the comments section below.
